Got Milk (Thistle)?

Veterinarian Reviewed on November 16, 2009 by Dr. Janice HuntingfordPosted in Cats

Ok, listen up all you booze-hounds and cats. This is a bit of a sobering article. Many of us need serious liver support, for all kinds of reasons: cat and dog liver disease, dog cushings disease…

I wanted to give you all a yap about an incredible ingredient, because it’s so ruffing important!

Since writing to you about how our humans create treatments for us pets, I’ve been reading up about milk thistle. Many of our Mediterranean, N. African and Middle Eastern kin will know the flowering plant, which grows leaves mottled with milky looking splashes. Humans have used milk thistle for like 14,000 doggie years (2,000 in human) to treat stomach problems and liver ailments.

When it comes to the liver, the active ingredient called silymarin ap-paw-ently protects the cells by removing and blocking toxins. It can also stimulate cell regeneration. Milk thistle has become a majorly important ingredient in our beast world: recently one of my beagle brothers, Bill, was part of a study wherein silymarin protected him from the toxic effects of mushroom poisoning (Dog, some brothers will eat anything. Sigh. Don’t let us near fungus of any kind – read my article on Foods To Avoid HERE).

Silymarin is generally given in tablet or capsule form (hack hack! It makes me gag just thinking about it), but buck up buddies: your human will easily be able to add it to food. You won’t notice a thing, except how amazing you’ll eventually feel. You’ll be jumping for joy!

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Our Expert

Dr. Janice Huntingford
Janice Huntingford, DVM, has been in veterinary practice for over 30 years and has founded two veterinary clinics since receiving her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph. She has studied extensively in both conventional and holistic modalities.
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